Happy Birthday Laura! Our week has been extremely busy working long days, spending time with the Youth (3 different evenings), and celebrating Laura's birthday as well as Natasha and Darla's Graduation, so this is a little belated.

Lenita and the team took us out to eat for Laura's birthday at a nice resturaunt here in Salonta. Sally Sebo was also able to come and enjoy the fun as well. Thanks TLC for the wonderful meal and your thoughtfulness to help make this special.

Happy belate Birthday Laura as well as Anniversary! You are very special to me and have been such a blessing to my life. You are the best cook and not too bad of a school teacher either, if this Principal can say so. You are definitely a 95% Proverbs 31 woman. That's an inside joke in case you think I'm being harsh! While we were in Russia, Laura was being a little down on herself and so I started looking at all of the list in Proverbs 31 and she came up with a passing grade with only one exception. Verse 16 says "she considereth a field and buyeth it; with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard." We both agreed her strengths aren't in business assetts and she claims to kill plants, not grow them. :) So since then, we joke about being a 95% Prov. 31 woman. I am so grateful for the wonderful wife God has given to me and for all of her talents and Godly attributes. She's a great mother and wife and her only desire is to follow Christ! She loves being a wife and mother. I support her in her desires to be the Godly wife she wants to be and to help in raising our children for God. Our family is our number one Mission Field and may God help us to instill in them a desire to follow after God.

Jon never seems to miss out on a photo opt. He's always ready to pose for the picture! :)

This is the ditch that needed to be dug. It was 60 CM deep which is right around 2 feet deep. Pipes then had to be pounded into the ditch, a huge "cable" attached, and then this needs to be connected to the "cable" from the building. (We just helped with the ditch while some of the others worked on pounding the pipes) It will act as the grounding for the building and in case it is struct by lightning. There will be metal wires run up along the corners of the buildings with rods attached to the top of the building. If you have no idea of what I'm talking about, think about the old farm houses and other old building in the states that have those metal wires running down the corners of the buildings and that will give you a good idea of what I am trying to describe. I apoligize for the lack of descriptive words. :)

The TLC group did such a great job on scraping the paint off of the gates at the Mission House that we thought you might like to hire them. They did a much better job than expected because the gate was in such bad shape that we didn't think it would get that clean. Thanks for the many hours it took to get them ready for painting.

In this picture you can see Travis, Amber and Crista and all of the work that has been accomplished.

Hauling Concrete! The ever-helpful John hauling concrete for the first floor.

What a week or should I say WEAK! We worked hard this week and had busy days! The concrete for the rest of the first floor was poured, a 60 cm deep ditch was dug around the entire building so that the ground wire and lightning poles could be installed. I don't know how to explain that system so if it's vague, I'm sorry about that. We also were able to get the gate at the Mission House completely scraped this week. The team enjoyed playing volleyball with the Youth one night, going out for Laura's b-day another night and playing football yet another evening. We also had Graduation Commencement for Natasha and Darla.

BTW- we played the kind of football that is played with your foot, not the kind that is mostly played with your hands! Go figure! :)

By Thursday evening, these poor bones were exhausted and I knew we needed a day off so we took Friday off. That was a good thing for we some of us began to get sick and it's been going through everyone. So we would appreciate your prayers!

When we get a good connection, I will post more pictures!

• Continue to pray for the finances of the Youth Center! The dollar value continues to drop which means our dollar is worth less and won't buy as much. There have been costs that we were not made aware of when we tried to set a budget. Two examples of this are the "electrical/lightning thing" that will cost a few thousand as well as being told by someone who is supposed to know what's going on that we would not need certain inspection ("expertise") only to be told later that we did need it. This is the huge challenge of having a building project in a foreign country. Things just don't operate the same way as in the states. So please pray that God will meet the needs. He is in control and He is helping!

Tear it up! Here's Rick Cessna taking out his frustrations on the concrete. We had to do some demolition before we could progress. There was extra concrete left over last year and it was poured at various places. We needed to remove it so that we could get the proper heigth for using the new heating system. After working hard to remove quite a bit, we were able to get the iron work and plastic down for concrete installation.

Preparing the iron for the concrete! Here you can see 2 of the TLC members helping prepare the iron for the concrete. The Lord willing we will pour the rest of the coincrete by hand on Monday. This will be the base before the heating system is installed.

TLC crew! Here's a shot of the TLC group with the children from House of Hope Orphanage, as well as fellow H.I.M. Missionary Sally Sebo.

Finish coat of Concrete! Here you can see the heating system upstairs, on one of the sections and the finish coat that was put on top of this. This was completed this last Monday.

We still will need to install the heating pipes in the other sections of the building as well as the finish coat, on top of the base coat of concrete.

Youth Center Update! We've been real busy lately for we have a TLC team from Hobe Sound Bible Church here. A crew of Romanians finished the exterior coat with the color in it, just this week. They did great work and it went real quick.

We were unable to work the first 2 days since we were advised that it might be best if we weren't around while the Romania crew was there. Just one of those foreign country things that happens, since we are Americans. I won't go into detail.

The TLC crew has been busy doing some prep work for the concrete floor downstairs. We are hoping to pour the concrete on Monday.

Continue to pray for wisdom, safety, & the finances to finish this particular phase. Then we will be able to move on to the final phase of the entire project.

Hausman Howdies / Lovin Life! This is something Laura started over 3 years ago. She started by just writing to family, then a few close friends, and on and on it goes. More and more heard about it and wanted to receive it but we have problems with our internet server. Most of the time we try to upload pics to the blog, send out something to an extensive list of people, we get disconnected and it has caused much frustration. However, we can post text on the blog pretty well so we are going to do it this way until we find a better solution.

Just a note of warning, when Laura started doing this, it never was intended to be some list of things we've done, or some grand "spritual journey", but just normal daily living. It's the good, the bad and the ugly. The content in the Hausman Howdies is not necessarily the views of the "chief-bottle-washer" and he can't be held liable or accountable for the content. :) Enjoy it for what it is and learn to love life, which sometimes takes more of the will than at others.

Dearest Family and friends,
Hello from this crazy Haus! It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me and the excuses are many, but I’ll spare you of those! :)

We are more than excited about a team coming from Hobe Sound, FL to work here for the next 3 weeks. This is a short term mission’s trip for 8 people. We would appreciate your prayers for their safety in their flights as well as the work that we hope to accomplish with them here. They are bringing helpers for the building of the interior walls of the Youth Center in Talpos! This part DARYL will need LOTS of prayer. He knows his stuff, but it can all be so different in a foreign culture and “stuff” can get a little “scary” at times. At times like that we need your prayers for a better sense of humor!! :) Laughing is a great part of missionary life... for if you don’t laugh, you’ll go crazy(er)! :)

SCHOOL IS FINISHED as of Monday June 11th! Natasha and Brittany both only have a couple of exams to wrap up and Boy oh Boy, does it EVER FEEL GOOD!!! J Summer is just as much for ME as it is for them, I think! :) Our list of fun “to-do’s” this summer is LONG already... we’ll be working hard to get those finished by schools beginning next year... like scrapbooking, baking etc...

Darla finished last week and has thoroughly enjoyed having these days off... but has wondered in and asked for another paper to do or some one to please give her a spelling test! :) She’s cute!

Bryan is VERY GLAD to have his “favorite” sister out of school. For she is his playmate, punching bag, doggy if needed, you name it and they do it together! Its so much fun to watch them and hear their giggles. But it’s even better when I remember to wear my ear plugs! :) Just kidding! I’m so thankful for the awesome privilege that God has given us to “get to be” parents! How we enjoy and PRAY that we are doing HIS WILL with these precious souls!

Aren’t you glad for the different personalities that God created? Life would be pretty boring if everyone just had ONE. Our Darla has such a bubbly one and the other evening during family alter it was her turn to pray. She started out as normal thanking Jesus for all that He has given her, the nice day, our dog (Daryl said that never has one dog been prayed for any more than our Rita! He’s right!!) and whatever else was her normal thoughts for that day. Then she got all jumping up and down excited as she told God how excited that she was to be finished with school. I “peeked” and she was wiggling like crazy and giggling while talking to God. It was precious. How wonderful that our Heavenly Father cares about each and every wonderful detail of our lives and How pleased He must be when we come to Him... Just as we are!

Bryan may be more of one of those diamonds in the rough... at this stage anyway. Pray for him (and us) as we steer him GOD”S way. The other day he came in the house and breathed a huge sigh and said, “Whew, Moma, I’m tired from workin’!” He loves to go with Daryl to the “work site” as he calls it. He is always so interested in how things go and what makes them work like that etc. However he can get a bit snappy at times. One of those times happened this week when one of his sisters asked if he knew where he put something of theirs that he had “borrowed”... he was “busy” playing and didn’t want to be bothered with going to look for it and so told them. “I don’t know where it is...” then as he was walking back to his play place, I heard him say under his breath... “So... you’ll just have to ‘deal’ with it!” Only problem with that comment was Mommy heard it! I did have to hide a smile...for he sounded so grown up... but that smart talk we won’t tolerate... so he had to apologize!

Last weekend you didn’t hear from us for we were invited up into Ukraine to visit and minister. This was a last minute thing really... and we felt that we really didn’t have “time”... but also felt that that was a trick of the enemy of our souls trying to have us miss another blessing. As I was trying to get everything ready to leave staying up late at night and packing things etc... our washer decided to pick that time to get fussy. Thankfully it does still work, but sure is kinda touchy. In the midst of all of this Bryan had an accident in his bed. When he saw my face thinking...why now, I’ve got so much to do and now will have to try to wash his sheets too... Grrrr... Those were only my thoughts for I just said, ‘Oh Bryan”... he was oh so concerned and trying to help his stressed out Moma said, “Oh, Mommy it’s okay they will dry!” Gauge!!! But it did work... for I at least had a good laugh out of it while I washed and hung out his sheets! :)
The Lord gave us a good time visiting in Ukraine. They asked Daryl to have a message in the a.m. and some music from us. We chose to only play instruments, except for one Russian praise chorus that we had learned in Russian. Though they speak Ukrainian, they understand and can speak Russian too. We were so pleased with how the Lord came and helped our efforts. When we got there and were discussing the Lord’s day and what they were expecting they mentioned that they had some different American’s to be there in the evening service. We were VERY interested to know who it was and were so pleased to find out that it was Rick and Joan Hutchison. She was my piano teacher years ago and Daryl later had their youngest son as a student. What a small world! And HOW WONDERFUL to hear a message in English too! They had 3 men traveling with them from TN! YES! We were soooo excited to get to meet them and hear them talk. I was raised in east TN and have never gotten over it. 2 of the men were even from Friendsville. One of them is married to a granddaughter of my Grandmother’s 1st cousin A.D. Long... we had fun joking that we were “related”! It was unreal for we American’s... and just think we thought we were “too” busy to come up there that weekend! For more of a man’s point of view check out Daryl’s blog.

A real treat was also ours this week to get to take the kids from the orphanage to McDonald’s. This was thanks to a friend of ours giving the funds specifically for this purpose. We took them out to celebrate getting out of school! It was a fun time... there is a picture on the blog of this outing too. Later this week we were able to also give them the clothing that Salvation Army donated back in January. We were able to see some happy faces and in the service this morning they were wearing many of the new things that they had just gotten. It was a blessing to see how God moved to work things out for this answer to prayer!

Enough for a while from us... I must get busy writing thank you notes... for since we have American’s coming, I can send back mail... so that means quite a bit of work to get all the mail mailed that you’ve been wanting to mail for the last 4 months! J God bless you all and thanks ever so much for your prayers for this family. We feel them and so appreciate them. Love, Laura Hausman and my much loved family

P.S. I’ll try to write once while the team is here... but don’t hold you breath for it might only be wishful thinking!

Thanks to a special gift specifically designated to take the children from House of Hope Orphanage to McDonald's, we had a wonderful time!

I know that most of you cringe at the thought of another "fast food" like McD's! Well, that's one of the special treats for us here in a foreign country. So we got to enjoy the treat as well, along with our fellow H.I.M. Missionary, Sally Sebo. Afterwards we went to a park and they were able to enjoy playing around for a while.

Thank you so much to our dear sister in North America who made this all possible. We say thank you and the children also say "Thank You!" May God bless you!

We were able to make another trip up to the Uzhgorod, Ukraine area this last weekend to minister and be a light for Christ! What a joy it was as God helped me to preach and as we ministered with several different songs.

The girls played a few songs on the violins, I played a song on the trumpet and we sang a couple of songs both in Russian and English. We thank God for the trip and His leadership was evident.

It was a wonderful surprise also to see Bro. & Sis. Rick Hutchison, who were in Uzhgorod to visit Wesley Bible College on business and to meet some fellow Tennesseans who also came along with the Hutchisons. It was a great encouragement to hear Bro. Hutchison preach, in English, thank the Lord. It was food for our soul!!!! Thanks a lot!!!

God also worked a "little miracle" out on the way home. I put that in quotes for I'm not one of these folks who calls everything miracles. I believe most of what happens is God's providential working through people and events. Sorry for the theological discourse, but not sorry enough! :) The Ukrainian border can be very time consuming and a hassle. I won't go into the long nonsense of it. The crossing from Ukraine into Hungary is the main crossing between those 2 countries and coming back it can easily take 2 hours, just to cross. We were planning on leaving early Monday morning to come back to Romania, however, Sunday we were invited by the Pastor to have breakfast with them. So, we took them up on the offer and didn't leave their house until late morning. We had to stop by to fuel up, for fuel in the Ukraine is much cheaper, only around $3.00 a Gallon rather than over $5.00 a gallon in Romania. Food is also cheaper so we bought a few supplies before leaving, Uzhgorod! I had been much in prayer for I knew we had a long trip ahead of us do to the fact that we also needed to pick up supplies in Hungary for a work team that was coming and I needed to check on prices for construction materials. So we were only about 5 hours later than what our original plans had been. When we approached the border, I couldn't help but say, "Praise the Lord", to myself. As we drove further, I kept saying it for I didnt' see any cars. Then, finally, I saw a few cars, but only maybe 2. There were 2 other spots that normally you had to wait a long time and, no cars at the first spot, and then across the long bridge with no cars on the bridge as well. It wasn't until we got to the Hungarian side did we have to wait behind about 4 cars before finishing the crossing process. When the Hungarian border control came up to my window and asked me all kinds of questions, one of which was, "how long did you have to wait" at the Ukrainian border? I said, just a couple of minutes and he replied. You are lucky! LUCK!

No my friend, that's God providientially working in our lives, for He knew that we needed to go to that invitation for breakfast to be a blessing and to be blessed!

Ok, I'm spoiled for life. I was spoiled before I ever came to the Mission field because of my wife's great cooking. And now that I've had the wonderful priviledge to enjoy the wonderful cooking and food in several different European countries, I'm really spoiled.

One of our friends in Ukraine keeps bees as a hobby. He was busy retrieving the honey and he let me "stage this photo". I actually did very little of removing the wax so the honey could come out, but now I'm spoiled for life. The natural honey, that hasn't been mass produced with who knows what in it, is the best. I guess it should be for God created it like that. Thanks Stephan for the wonderful Honey, it's DELICIOUS! I could eat it by the jar! It's no wonder "Pooh bear" loves it so much!

We truly are spoiled! Spoiled by God's goodness to us! There was a time before I became a Christian and even shortly after being a Christian, that I had no intentions of being involved in Ministry. There wasn't any money in it and I had my plans on what I wanted to do. The ironic thing was that I didn't want to be a Pastor, Christian School teacher or Missionary, simply because there wasn't any money in it. Those were the thoughts of a worldly Christian. Yes, a Christian may have worldly ideas for worldliness is any thought, idea, action, way of thinking that is contrary to God's word. But I praise God that through His working in my life He led me into all 3 of those situations, Assistant Pastor, Christian School Teacher & now Missionary. I love serving God and my only desire is to do what He has called us to do. Yes, living in a foreign country is extremely difficult at times and there are times when I long for the "easier life", but I wouldn't trade anything for the experiences we've had and knowing I'm doing what God wants. Sometimes people don't always understand the decisions we make for God, but I'm seeking my Heavenly Fathers leadership and not this worlds. If I have His leadership and approval, then that's what I want. I've never wanted anyone to feel sorry for me for taking my family to the Mission Field only that people would find the same peace and desire to follow God completely and without holding anything back. Doing God's will is not always exciting, there's lots of valleys along the way but there's no greater peace than doing what you know God wants! Slava Boga!

Interior Stucco is finished! This is one of the stucco guys taking a coffee break! You can see the finish coat of stucco. There will be a smooth coat of "glit" which will be put on and then we will be able to paint it.

As you can see the concrete floor has yet to be installed. This was all delayed because of the push last fall to finish at a good spot for winter. We hope to put in the base layer of concrete soon.

Guttering installed! The guttering has been installed on one side and the other side should be finished today.

The second coat of exterior stucco is also being worked on this week as well as the corners and sills.

The exterior windows and doors have all been installed as well.

We trust that next week, the finish coat with the coloring will be finished. Then there's LOTS and LOTS of interior work to be done. :)

Continue to pray for the finances and we could use some drywall hangers & finishers. Contact me at dhausman@zappmobile.ro

The heating system has been started. We will be using tubing that is run in the concrete and

warms the floor up, which in turn heats the room. The parts are coming from a company in Sweeden. A finish coat of smooth concrete will cover the tubing. What we found out was that the cost was almost the same as using many, many radiators and all of the piping for the radiators. This system is supposed to be a much better system and much more efficient.